1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to crash test dummies and, more particularly, to a flexible printed circuit cabling system for a crash test dummy.
2. Description of the Related Art
Automotive, aviation, and other vehicle manufacturers conduct a wide variety of collision testing to measure the effects of a collision on a vehicle and its occupants. Through collision testing, a vehicle manufacturer gains valuable information that can be used to improve the vehicle.
Collision testing often involves the use of anthropomorphic mannequins, better known as “crash test dummies.” During collision testing, an operator places a crash test dummy inside a vehicle, and the vehicle undergoes a simulated collision. The collision exposes the crash test dummy to high inertial loading, and sensors inside the crash test dummy, such as accelerometers, pressure gauges, and the like, generate electrical signals of data corresponding to the loading. Conventional cables transmit these electrical signals of data to a data acquisition system (DAS) for subsequent processing. This data reveals information about the effects of the collision on the crash test dummy and can be correlated to the effects a similar collision would have on a human occupant.
In order to obtain more accurate collision data, test engineers attempt to maximize what is known as the “biofidelity” of the crash test dummy. Biofidelity is a measure of how the crash test dummy reacts in a vehicle collision test. A crash test dummy reacting as an actual human would during a collision is said to have a high biofidelity. Accordingly, a crash test dummy having a high biofidelity will provide more accurate information from a collision test relative to the effect of the collision on a human being. Thus, vehicle collision test engineers design crash test dummies with a total weight, center of gravity, and flexibility similar to that of a human body so as to increase the biofidelity of the crash test dummy.
However, the cables that connect the sensors to the DAS often degrade the biofidelity of the crash test dummies. More specifically, the configurations used are usually heavy, bulky umbilical cable systems extending out of the crash test dummy to the DAS. Since there can be many sensors inside the crash test dummy, there can be a large number of heavy, bulky cables extending out of the crash test dummy, thereby adversely affecting the dummy's center of gravity and weight distribution. Moreover, maneuvering the crash test dummy with this large number of cables during test preparation can be challenging.
To ameliorate this problem, test engineers typically tape, hang, or tie off the umbilical cables. However, this type of preparation is labor intensive. Moreover, this preparation does not satisfactorily improve the biofidelity in all cases.
Test engineers have also attempted positioning the cable systems and DAS inside the crash test dummy so as to improve biofidelity. However, many test configurations do not fit inside the limited space inside the crash test dummy. Also, removing structures from inside the crash test dummy to make room for the cables and DAS may actually violate governmental crash test regulations. Thus, internalizing the cabling system and DAS has found limited application. Therefore, there is a need in the art to provide a lightweight, compact cabling system for use in a crash test dummy so that biofidelity of the crash test dummy is improved.